Sketches from Formosa.

260 SKETCHES FROM FORMOSA
the Tainan School must soon bring about a serious change
of the position. I have tried repeatedly to awaken the
interest of Government officials to the good work which
blind lads might render as interpreters in the hundreds
of offices connected with the Prefectural, Law, Police,
Post-office, Customs, Railway and Medical services in
Formosa. Many of those blind Chinese youths are
really good speakers of Japanese, and are able to write
it swiftly and accurately. We have not given up hope
that some such help may yet be extended to them.
The most urgent need is found among the healthy,
intelligent blind girls between sixteen and twenty years
of age. As those girls do not hope to earn a living at
massage, and few of them have relatives who can support
them, what are they to do ? Full answer to that question
would lead to the recital of many a tragic story. In the
reasonable hope that it may soon bring some measure
of relief, I have asked a Manchester firm to send out one
of their knitting machines which are specially constructed
for blind workers. This action was not taken without
much enquiry, both here and at home, and one encouragement
is that the Prefect of Tainan has more than once
expressed an interest in the possibilities of this attempt.
I hope the prolixity of these remarks may not prove
to be rather tiresome. My only apology is that our
efforts to spread Christianity in the East must take a
very merciful and a very practical form. No doubt our
Mission Hospitals are veritable fountains of blessing, but
they leave untouched wide areas where leprous, blind,
incurably deformed and insane people are met with,
besides millions of healthy children who are perishing
from destitution and neglect. I have often thought that
the Roman Catholic Church sets a good example in the
extensive work she carries on among orphans
away infants.
and cast